Title question. If the answer is sometimes, are there any time periods it was more frequent or was it circumstantial necessary to complete a voyage?
In the time period I study, ships would generally have at the very least a few crew members at watch overnight -- warships would have half or a third of their crew on watch, depending on how they were manned, while merchant ships might make do with just a helmsman and some sort of officer standing watch.
In the Royal Navy, the traditional two-watch system ran like so:
The dog-watches (called that, of course, because they are, ahem, curtailed)* are meant to rotate the times of standing watch, so that men wouldn't consistently have to stay up for the middle watch, and also so that both watches could have supper at around the traditional time. Most of the members of a ship in the RN would stand a watch; those who had jobs where they just worked all day were called the "idlers" and tended to mess together, forming their own group. (Think of men like the cooper, sailmaker, captain's and officers' stewards, etc.)
The watches were timed by ship's bells, striking at the half-hour (time was kept in an hourglass), with one bell every half-hour added to the previous count. That is, at 8:30 p.m. one bell would be rung, at 9 p.m. a second, so on and so forth until 8 bells, the end of the watch. (Dog-watches ended with four bells.)
“Dogs,' said the chaplain, who was not one to leave his corner of the table silent long. 'That reminds me of a question I had meant to put to you gentlemen. This short watch that is about to come, or rather these two short watches - why are they called dog watches? Where, heu, heu, is the canine connection?'
'Why,' said Stephen, 'it is because they are curtailed, of course.'
A total blank. Stephen gave a faint inward sigh; but he was used to this. 'Mr Butler, the bottle stands by you,' said Jack. 'Mr Lydgate, allow me to help you to a little of the undercut.'
It was the midshipman who first reacted. He whispered to his neighbour Dashwood, 'He said, cur-tailed: the dogwatch is cur-tailed. Do you twig?'
It was the sort of wretched clench perfectly suited to the company. The spreading merriment, the relish, the thunderous mirth, reached the forecastle, causing amazement and conjecture: Jack leaned back in his chair, wiping the tears from his scarlet face, and cried, 'Oh, it is the best thing - the best thing. Bless you, Stephen - a glass of wine with you. Mr Simmons, if we dine with the admiral, you must ask me, and I will say, Why, it is because they have been docked, of course." No, no. I am out. Cur-tailed -cur-tailed. But I doubt I should ever be able to get it out gravely enough."
Excerpt From: Patrick O'Brian. “Post Captain.” iBooks.